


The Magic of Dreams

by Rameana



Category: The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Bullying, Child Abuse, Childhood Friends, Dream AU, M/M, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-08
Updated: 2016-05-18
Packaged: 2018-06-07 01:58:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 2,387
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6780754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rameana/pseuds/Rameana
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dreams have a special magic within them that few understand, but Achilles and Patroclus don't mind too much because this is how they were brought together.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Pain, embarrassment, and shame. These were all emotions that were running through 10 year old Patroclus' mind as he waited in the principal's office waiting for his father to show up. His father who was called at worked, and was asked to leave to come pick him up. Pick him up because a couple of older kids decided to push him to the ground during lunch, and kick him in the ribs. Patroclus' could not hear what his father was saying in the phone call to the principal, but judging by his side of the conversation he could guess. "No sir, Patroclus did not start the fight." Pause. "No sir, Patroclus was the only one to sustain any injuries." 

45 minutes had gone by and Patroclus was not sure wether or not to be nervous ,or relieved that he was still at school. If history has taught him anything though it is to be nervous. 

Finally after sitting in the office for a little over an hour Menoetius arrived. "I'm here for my son." He barked at the secretary. Patroclus got up out of his chair, and followed his father. It not escaping him how he hadn't even looked at him yet. 

" You didn't even attempt to defend yourself? I didn't raise you to be a weak coward. I am embarrassed to be your father." Menoetius has been repeating the same variations of insults for the last five minutes, and it has taken everything Patroclus had to not cry. He knew crying would only make everything worse. I can do this. We are almost home. I can do this. Patroclus thought to himself. 

They finally pulled into the driveway, and as soon as they entered the house Meneotius immediately poured himself a drink. Patroclus not wanting to aggravate his father anymore went upstairs.

Patroclus doesn't understand why he always is the one to get picked on. He tries to make himself invisible at school. At one point he thought not having friends would help with him being invisible, not draw attention to himself. Hour later as he was drifting off to sleep he started to think how maybe, just maybe having a friend would maybe make everything a little more bearable. 

\-------------------

When the bell rang at the end of the day Achilles ran out of the building at his normal lightening fast speed. Some kids were shouting at him, asking him if he wanted to come over to hang out. He always got a few invites every day, but today he just wanted to get into his dad's car and go home. 

He spotted his father's car, and continued to run towards it; throwing the door open, and flinging himself in the car before slamming the door shut again. "Hi son," said Peleus with a wide smile, "Whose house am I dropping you off at today?" Achilles sighed as he strapped on his seatbelt, "Nowhere today dad. I just really want to go home." 

There was a slight frown on Peleus' face when he heard this, "Did something happen today?" Achilles was silent for a minute, "Yes. No. I don't know Dad it's hard to explain." Peleus waited in silence for his son to continue. " I mean I know I have friends right, but I feel like even though they want to hang out with me, and always want me to do things with them, they don't actually know me? Whenever I try to talk about music they just laugh at me like it's a joke or something, and then we go back to playing video games or whatever." 

"Achilles, I'm sorry you feel that way. I guess that means you need to try branching out more looking for someone that has the same interests at you, and eventually you'll find someone you could call your best friend." 

"Thanks dad." 

Later that night father and son are eating dinner together talking and laughing as they do every night. Then Achilles went to bed thinking about the conversation from earlier in the car. One day I hope I find my best friend. Achilles thought as he drifted off to sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Strange and terrifying dreams happen, and finally a meeting.

  
When Patroclus awakes he is in his room, but there is something off about it. He just can't put his finger on it. Shrugging off the feeling he wanders downstairs for something to eat. When he enters the kitchen he immediately noticed his father who is washing something in the sink, with his back facing Patroclus.

"What do you think you're doing down here?" Patroclus froze. How can his dad already be mad at him?

Then Meneotius turned around, and had grew to ten feet tall. " I don't want you here, and I never have!" He screamed.

This is just a dream. This has to be just a dream. Patroclus repeated to himself over and over as tears started to spring up in his eyes.

"And now you're crying? Of course you are. That is the only thing you're good at: crying." Patroclus turned around to try to make a run for it; back to the safety of his bedroom, but the stairs had disappeared.

_Wake up, wake up, wake up._

He turned back around, and there was his dad, "Still crying? What a pathetic baby." Then Patroclus got slapped, right across the face.

_Wake up, wake up, wake up._

After Patroclus was slapped, his father disappeared, and the house slowly melted away from him. Patroclus was now in a place he didn't recognize. It seemed to be in the middle of a forest, and right next to a river. Just relieved that his nightmare was over, for now at least, he sat down next to the river and continued sobbed.

\---------------------------

When Achilles awoke he was already at school which seemed strange to him. As he was walking to his classroom though, someone grabbed his wrist. Achilles turned around, and the person who had a grip of him didn’t a face. Struggling to get away from this faceless student someone else had grabbed on to Achilles other wrist, and he was now feeling as though he was being pulled apart.

_Wake up, wake up, wake up._

"Stop!" He screamed, but the faceless people kept pulling on him. It seemed as though Achilles might get his arms ripped off, or he might even get pulled in half.

Finally, everything just seemed to dissolve away leaving Achilles in a forest. Deciding to explore this new area where it seemed that he could finally be left alone he heard something that sounded a little like crying. After a few minutes he came to a boy sitting next to a river and he was crying. A lot.

_Should I go check on him, or leave him alone? This is a weird dream._

Eventually Achilles slowly started to walk towards the boy and quietly called out to him, "Hey are you ok?" The kid jumped up, and ran behind a nearby tree, "please don't hurt me!" The strange kid screamed.

"I won't hurt you," Achilles said slowly, " you seem upset I wanted to see if I could help."

"No one can help!"

"Well I might not be able to help with your problems, but maybe I can help cheer you up!" If this is a dream then...Achilles concentrated and suddenly the air was filled with a soft music, "music always cheers me up when I'm sad."

The kid didn't reply. Achilles slowly sat down waiting for if the kid would want to talk, "By the way, my name's Achilles."

More silence, and then finally, "Mine's Patroclus....the music is nice thank you."


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of the first dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a little filler chapter, and in the next they will be a few years older (12 or so) and that is when a friendship will start to be formed.

Days had passed and Patroclus was still thinking of the strange dream he had. The boy in the dream had made him feel better, but before they could talk more he woke up.

_I'm I that much of a baby that I'm making up imaginary friends? And that name? Where in the world did I come up with a name like Achilles._

There was something about the imaginary boy from his dream though, that would always bring about a smile on his face.

_If I made him up I wonder why I've only seen him once?_

Whenever Patroclus would have a rough day at school or his dad would say cruel things to him; he took Achilles' advice and listened to quiet calming music, and it seemed to helped a little.

Eventually weeks went by, and even though the music stayed, Achilles was slowly forgotten.

\----------------------------------

When Achilles woke up from his dream he wasn't sure what to think. Why did he dream of some random kid crying? He didn't think that the kid: Patroclus he recalled. Did he even go to his school?

Dream or not it was kind of nice to be around a kid his age that wasn't constantly trying to get his attention, and Achilles thought it was...kind of nice.

After a few more nights Achilles did not dream of Patroclus again, and he slowly forgot about that meeting in the forest.


	4. Chapter 4

Junior high was just as bad as primary school for Patroclus, _no worse_ he thought, the same bullies were there as they always were, but the abuse just seemed to get worse the older they got. Some days, Patroclus thought he might actually die at school. He had asked his teachers for help, and they did the best they could: a couple of days of in school suspension or a week of out of school suspension, but then they were back in the hallway messing with him.

2nd hour was gym class which was Patroclus least favorite class of the day. It wasn't that he wasn't athletic, he was a fast runner, he was just stuck with the worst of the bullies. The leader of the group that always picked him was called Agamemnon. Patroclus has no idea why they decided to choose him to be the target, but they did.

Patroclus was standing at his warmup spot when Agamemnon started walking towards him.

_Just ignore him, just ignore him, just ignore him._

Then as soon as the other boy got to him that when the first punch happened, right to the stomach. Before Patroclus could recover from that his head was then being slammed into the wall. He felt someone pulling at him, and thinking it was Agamemnon Patroclus reacted. He quickly turned around and shoved the person to the ground, but he finally realized it before it was so to late: it was his gym teacher.

Both boys were then taken to the office by the school police officer, and separated, and this is when Patroclus luck decided to get even worse.

"Mr. Menotides," the principal started, "if you would have just shoved another student you would have received a minor punishment since you have not caused any problems in the past, but as per school rules, assault on a staff member is very serious. You will also be a accompanying Agamemnon to Juvenile Detention. We will call your father, and if he has the funds to pay your fine you will be able to leave."

"No please!!" Patroclus screamed, "Sir, you don't understand it was an accident. Please don't make me go! Please don't call my dad."

"You shoved a teacher in the process of a fight that means you go to the JDC. I'm sorry Patroclus."

The school police officer came into the principal's office, asked Patroclus to stand up, and together they started to walk out of the building. As Patroclus got into the back of the police car tears started to sting his eyes.

_What the hell is going to happen to me?_

An hour had passed and Patroclus had arrived at the JDC, was fingerprinted, photographed, and led to what was called the holding tank. There were two other kids in there waiting for their parents to show up, pay their fines, and pick them up. Eventually the other two kids left, and it was just Patroclus. Finally, a police officer entered the holding tank, but he had an unreadable expression on his face.

"Alright kid. We finally got a hold of your dad. He said he won't come and get you today. We explained to him since it was a Friday you'd be here until Monday, and he would be racking up the fines for you being here, but he could not be convinced otherwise. Come on we are moving you over to a different area to sleep."

Patroclus was shocked. He knew on some level that his dad probably did hate him, but to keep him here until Monday? When it wasn't even his fault? And then what is he going to do to me when I get let out?

When he was shown to his bunk Patroclus laid down, and cried himself to sleep.

\---------------------

When Achilles awoke he was in the forest the one that he had been in so many year ago. He started to wander around, and that's when he heard it calming music and crying. It was almost like he never even forgot about that strange dream with that crying boy he had back in primary school: and he started to run.

There he was, Achilles finally found him again the crying boy. _Patroclus_ his mind supplied him with. Achilles walked towards him quietly, and sat down.

"Patroclus? What's wrong? Can I help you somehow?"

Patroclus was startled, but he didn't make any move to run away which Achilles was grateful for, "I'm a complete screw up. There's nothing you can do for me."

" I don't believe that. Why don't you tell me why you're upset."

Patroclus then started to explain everything: how he had no friends at school, how the kids bully him, how his father treats him, and finally what had happened at school.

" I think I know why your're here." Achilles said after Patroclus ended his story.

"Why?"

"I think we are meant to be friends. I don't know why I'm making up an imaginary friend now, but I think this is important for some reason."

"Hey!" Patroclus yelled, "I'm not imaginary! You are the one that's made up!"

Achilles' smirked, "Sure whatever you say. If you're not made up then where do you go to school?"

Patroclus opened his mouth to answer, and they both woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the record I'm a 7th grade teacher and what I wrote about happened to two of my students this year....so yeah it can happen, and it isn't pretty.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it. I haven't written fanfic in literally 10 years. Tagging is something that makes me nervous in the sense that I will leave something out, so let me know if I feel like I should add something. Come talk to me on tumblr if you want at http://rameana.tumblr.com


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